Psychosomatic Medicine – Psychosomatic means a physical illness brought on by a mental state – Somatopsychic perspective pain/illness => emotional disturbance – High emotional states may result in physical reactions that in-turn manifest in physical illness/structural damage – “the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, I accomplish” – It is common to deny that physical symptoms have any thing to do with mental states – Example: spinal fusion for spinal arthritis; willfulness = should thinking; conflicts with grandchildren; try not to think about what should be and what shouldn’t be; don’t insist on anything; watch thoughts; watch words; become completely “shouldless”; 2 weeks later, the patient is healed and three years later there are no symptoms – Emotions are not the culprit in psychosomatic medicine, modes-of-being-in-the-world, which comprises the way an individual perceives life, its values and what its habits of thought are, are the culprit – Mind and body are not separate entities – the body is the mind and the mind is the body – mind manifests itself as thought, emotion, symptoms, and physical structures – thoughts vs. emotions.